1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a three-dimensional (“3D”) X-ray microscopy imaging system, and more particularly to a technique for enhancing the resolution of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section of this document introduces various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention described and/or claimed below. It provides background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of “related” art. That such art is related in no way implies that it is also “prior” art. The related art may or may not be prior art. The discussion in this section of this document is to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
“Microscopy” may be considered to be the art of examining things under a microscope. The most familiar type of microscopy is “optical microscopy”, which is frequently encountered in high school science classes. Optical microscopy illuminates a slide mounted specimen on a landing using visible light which may then be magnified and viewed. However, there are many kinds of microscopes, many of which operate under fundamentally different principles.
One alternative type of microscope is an “X-ray microscope”, with which one practices “X-ray microscopy”. An X-ray microscope generates X-rays that are then directed at and pass through a specimen under examination. Sometimes the generated X-rays cause “secondary” X-rays to “fluoresce” from the specimen. The X-rays emanating from the specimen are not visible to the naked eye, and so must be imaged. An X-ray microscope therefore includes a sensor for detecting the X-rays that have passed through the specimen and generating an image therefrom. Conventional approaches today generate a digital image, which may be considered to be an ordered set of data. This data may be stored electronically or rendered so that it may be perceptible to humans. Thus, it may be rendered for display on a screen or printing. The output of the sensor therefore is usually processed by an electronic apparatus of some sort that typically includes at least rudimentary processing capabilities.
A “freeze frame” method of looking at biological and chemical motion has been demonstrated using detectors including modulated microchannel plate images and fast scintillator materials. The method gated of X-ray fluorescent microchannel plates with a short modulating pulse. This required a very short time constant of modulation depth for the microchannel plate, and scintillator fluorescence response, which is limited to approximately 0.1 nanoseconds, which gives only about one tenth of a foot or 1.2″ of transmission range “slice”. This is inadequate range gating to improve contrast images of objects on the order of 1.2″ or thinner. A calibration method for modulated microchannel plate X-ray imagers has been demonstrated by using high energy lasers to generate a short pulse of X-rays, but this was not used as part of the working imaging microscope. See M. R. Carter, et al., “A Microchannel Plate Intensified, Subnanosecond, X-ray Imaging Camera”, 41 Physica Scripta 390-395 (1990)
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.